UNION activists came together on Saturday to share ideas and build capacity to organise precarious and low-paid workers in London.
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) organised the Winning at Work event, which was attended by representatives from Bectu, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), RMT, Unite and the University & College Union.
The NEF has warned that precarious and low-paid work has boomed in London in recent years, with 117,000 Londoners on zero-hours contracts facing an uncertain and insecure income.
It said that 690,000 workers in the capital are earning less than the London living wage and that 58 per cent of Londoners in poverty are from a working family.
Despite those shocking figures, trade union density in inner London is just 15.1 per cent, the lowest of any area in the country.
Since last autumn the NEF has been working with union branches across the capital to address the issues of declining wages and worsening working conditions coupled with a drop in trade union membership.
RMT member Andy Littlechild told comrades how his union had managed to organise among casualised agency workers performing track maintenance on London Underground.
When asked by an IWGB member who works for gig economy employer Deliveroo how to bridge divisions between motorcyclists and cyclists, he said: “Remind them they are all workers. This is about overalls versus suits. They have more in common with each other than their boss.”
Kevin Curran, from Unite’s hotel workers’ branch, told attendees: “You are not organising ‘the union.’ You are organising your union in your workplace. That’s the most important thing.”
IWGB organiser and press officer Emiliano Mellino said: “If you’re a precarious worker, striking isn’t enough. You need to strike hard, and in a way that breaks the machine.”
Bectu member Kelly Rogers, who has been involved in the living wage campaign at the Ritzy cinema in Brixton, south London, spoke about the importance of community support.
She said: “It’s not about replacing striking and worker action, it’s about making it more powerful.”
